On June 28, 2010, the US Supreme Court ruled in McDonald v. Chicago that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment makes the Second Amendment right to bear arms applicable to the states as well as the federal government. The case arose over a Chicago ordinance which effectively banned the possession of handguns. Justice Samuel Alito, in delivering the majority opinion of the court, cited the 2008 opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller which established that the Second Amendment bestows an individual right of gun ownership upon citizens. Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia wrote concurring opinions. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote a dissenting opinion. Justice Stephen Breyer, joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, also dissented.

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